Unique solutions for every client

Can you get kicked off of your college team for drinking? 

On Behalf of | May 18, 2023 | Criminal Defense

You’ve never been in trouble with the law before. But you recently began attending school, where you have an athletic scholarship. Your sports career is very important to you, both because you love the sport and because it is helping to pay for your school.

Unfortunately, maybe you have an encounter with the police that leads to an arrest. Say that you are at a party and you’re drinking when you’re underage. Or perhaps you are old enough to drink, but you got caught driving back from that party and were arrested on impaired driving charges.

You certainly know that there are going to be legal ramifications. Maybe you’ll have to pay a fine, perhaps you’ll lose your driver’s license. But are you also going to get kicked off of the team?

Many schools have conduct policies

Issues with drinking or illegal drugs certainly can lead to the expulsion from a team or from an institution of higher learning entirely. This isn’t to say that every student who gets a “minor in possession” or a drunk driving charge is going to be kicked out of college. Tens of thousands of students face these types of charges every year. But it is possible for the university to take action if it appears that you have broken the conduct policy.

As such, the situation could be even more dire than you realized. It’s not just the financial fine that you’re going to have to pay. You also may have to think about the real cost of tuition if you no longer have an athletic scholarship, and you may be concerned that your dreams of a professional athletic career are in jeopardy

As such, if you are facing charges as a college student, it’s quite important to know about all of your legal options.